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Metrosideros polymorpha; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Metrosideros polymorpha Gaudich.

'Ohi'a lehua

Myrtaceae · Hawaii

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Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.7°C
Record low 13.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,902mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–44DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Metrosideros polymorpha, the ʻōhiʻa lehua, is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaiʻi. It is a member of the diverse Metrosideros genus, which are widespread over the southwest Pacific. It is the state tree of Hawaiʻi.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Metrosideros polymorpha", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Metrosideros

Metrosideros is a genus of approximately 60 trees, shrubs, and vines in the family Myrtaceae, mostly found in the Pacific region. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are exceptionally large, the New Zealand species in particular. The name derives from the Ancient Greek metra or "heartwood" and sideron or "iron". More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Metrosideros", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,452 mm of 1,935 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and July. Mean temperature moves 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,935 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,452 mm of it October to April and July. Wettest month December at 219 mm, driest month June at 97 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 916 mm to 4,192 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,902 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,935 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.7 °C, the absolute minimum 13.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.2 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 8.6 °C to 20.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +144 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Metrosideros polymorpha through the yearWarmest months July, August, September and October, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 17.2 °C; 1,935 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°26.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–44RH 64–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 178 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 17–2421 / 17–2321 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2523 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2724 / 20–2724 / 19–2623 / 18–2522 / 17–24
Night °C18 / 9–2117 / 9–2017 / 9–2118 / 9–2119 / 10–2219 / 11–2320 / 11–2320 / 12–2420 / 12–2420 / 11–2319 / 11–2318 / 10–21
Rain mm193 / 103–335158 / 75–341218 / 95–473167 / 68–384115 / 48–28297 / 31–221138 / 40–313138 / 42–291133 / 42–322152 / 74–336207 / 95–477219 / 114–421
DLI28 / 25–3032 / 30–3436 / 34–3940 / 38–4342 / 40–4644 / 42–4743 / 41–4642 / 40–4539 / 37–4234 / 32–3628 / 26–3126 / 24–29
RH %65 / 59–6964 / 59–6865 / 60–7066 / 60–7266 / 59–7266 / 58–7266 / 59–7366 / 59–7266 / 60–7266 / 60–7166 / 60–7165 / 59–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 178 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (909 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1413:496 (19.325, -155.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 178 distinct grid cells holding 909 of the 912 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1413:496 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-155.000, lapse-corrected +144 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 626 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeHawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.617, -155.667 · in the densest population, 1061 records (82% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1295 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 909 of them in the land cells it reads, of 912 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 397 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 45 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 383 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1295 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Metrosideros polymorpha, photograph 1did not loadMetrosideros polymorpha, photograph 2did not loadMetrosideros polymorpha, photograph 3did not loadMetrosideros polymorpha, photograph 4did not loadMetrosideros polymorpha, photograph 5did not loadMetrosideros polymorpha, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Brynn Fricke, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lipochaeta connata Nehe Cibotium menziesii Cibotium menziesii Hawaiian tree fern Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaPipturus albidus Pipturus albidus Waimea Mamaki Photo: CC BY, Brynn FrickeWilkesia gymnoxiphium Wilkesia gymnoxiphium Iliau Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaRhus sandwicensis Rhus sandwicensis Hawaiian sumac Photo: CC BY, Sawyer BaranFreycinetia arborea Freycinetia arborea 'Ie'ie Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Metrosideros 20 in the reference

Metrosideros albiflora Metrosideros albiflora White Flowering Rātā Photo: CC BY, Hannah Whittall Metrosideros angustifolia Myrtaceae Metrosideros bartlettii Metrosideros bartlettii Bartlett's rata Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros carminea Metrosideros carminea Crimson rata Photo: CC BY, Chris ParminterMetrosideros colensoi Metrosideros colensoi Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros collina Metrosideros collina Vunga Photo: CC BY, Mike BowieMetrosideros diffusa Metrosideros diffusa Small ratavine Photo: CC BY, 大澤風季 ohsawa_FukiMetrosideros excelsa Metrosideros excelsa New Zealand Christmastree Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieMetrosideros fulgens Metrosideros fulgens Scarlet rātā vine Photo: CC BY, Stephen HartleyMetrosideros kermadecensis Metrosideros kermadecensis Pohutukawa Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros laurifolia Metrosideros laurifolia Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Rosario DouglasMetrosideros nervulosa Metrosideros nervulosa Mountain Rose Photo: CC BY, Leon Perrie all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Metrosideros collina subsp. oahuensis; Metrosideros collina subsp. polymorpha; Metrosideros hillebrandii; Metrosideros polymorpha var. macrostemon; Nania polymorpha. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Gaudich.
Native to
Hawaii
Wild records
1295 in range · 397 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 40 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (37 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-155.000, lapse-corrected +144 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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